Showing posts with label rocco j frank jr.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rocco j frank jr.. Show all posts

Thursday, April 10, 2008

New York Rejects Broadwater!


Thank you Governor Patterson, and everyone here in our state who made the LNG go away. This marks a major victory for the environment, the safety of CT's residents and the fish and wildlife who depend on the Sound.

This has been a long hard fight that gives each and everyone of us hope and faith that together we can make a difference.

The question now remains where is the LNG headed to next?, has the Shell Oil Corp. Given up on CT? and are new sites being planned? According to Attorney General Richard Blumenthal the LNG is best suited for the industrial area located within the vicinity of the shipping ports of the Meadowlands in N.J.

Blumenthal believes that those sites are the best ones as they already have most of the provisions and industrial infrastructure in place to accommodate such a massive project. For now we can assume that Broadwater has not given up on our energy needs and I would expect they will continue searching for a new location.

With this now behind us, I am concerned about our energy needs in the long run. It is now more possible to have a supply constraint on natural gas. This is because gas demand becomes more of an issue during extreme cold or extreme heat; especially next year when United Illuminating puts their new gas burning plants online. If demand exceeds supply, homeowners may be inadvertently driving up their electric costs. This is because UI's new plants produce our peak electricity with natural gas! Should a supply constraint occur we could expect natural gas prices to soar in tandem with peak electric production. This makes conservation extremely important!

Hopefully we can solve these energy issues by relocating this barge to a safe alternate area, or by creating an environment where high energy prices accelerate eco-friendly energy products and investment bringing them to market sooner.

These could include ethanol, hydrogen, or hybrid based fuels. The market is now completely ready and willing to accept the next generation of these inventions to meet our energy needs and young innovative companies are thriving in the process.

Today's LNG defeat brings all of America one step closer to next generation technology and our future energy independence.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Illegal Dumping At Gulf Pond May Be A Town Policy Issue. (Opinion)


This problem occurrs as a result of the city of Milford charging a fee to use their dump. As a candidate for State Representative here in Milford (www.rfrank118.com ) I have been proposing that the town dump follow the same policy as the recycling center in Wesport.

Westport rarely has illegal dumping because there is no charge to use the dump. Many contractors are already using random garbage dumpsters around town and making small business owners upset. Even my office in Milford on New Haven Ave. is victim to mysterious piles of garbage appearing in the dark of night.

The cost of performing routine illegal dumping cleanups certainly must erode the small fees they collect, it makes no sense to have our city drop all their garbage on the curb each year for free, but we cannot use the city dump without paying a paltry few dollars.

What I propose is to eliminate the unsightly periodic street garbage dumping and make it free at the source. Hence, if revenue is an issue fines can be increased to install surveilance equipment at specific illegal dump sites.

Every problem dump site should have a sign directing people of consequences of illegal dumping and an advisory re-directing them to the town dump where they can unload for free.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Sakhalin & Environmentalists challenge "Peak Oil"

The notion of "Peak Oil" may soon be a myth, with the re-emergence of the Russian empire at its helm. While many old timers during the Reagan Gorbachev era thought Russia had gone bankrupt and then into a group of dissenting rogue colonies, may soon be disappointed to know that this could become cold war history.

The Russian oil empire, is growing again, and this time the success of Lukeoil may be pale in comparison. At the farthest reaches of the Russian empire every major corporate giant and their friends are building the largest oil and gas project ever created. This project is so enormous that the Discovery channel has featured it on their "Building the Ultimate" series. Some of the oil exploration rigs can only be built at the largest shipyard on earth of which is located in South Korea.

This construction is currently underway on the economically challenged island of Sakhalin. This area once a struggling fishing and timber based community has now become a international city comprised of five thousand foreigners from the oil and gas exploration and construction industry.

The local, Russian natives, needless to say are not happy with the unwelcome intrusion and have staged several environmental protests including the obstruction of routes and aggravated construction delays and protests. With Global billions in international investment already made, all environmental and ecological concerns are being placated but not tolerated insofar as stopping the completion of this mammoth project. Oil and Gas is expected to begin flowing within the next three years alleviating most peak oil concerns for a while.

If the projected estimates of the attainable gas and oil are correct this project will save the world from the fear of peak oil for the next several decades, and in the process will make Russia the dominant oil superpower in the world. Russia's thirst for oil is still not over, even despite this large discovery, believe it or not they are claiming the North Pole all its oil, Gas, and Minerals, to include valuable gems for themselves.

Without any doubt the debate over who owns the North Pole is now alive and well with every nation on earth doing its bidding. This scenario is an eerie repeat of who owned America after Columbus discovered it in 1492, hopefully Global warming now, making oil exploration more viable, will not lead to a repeat of history where the world is at war over these new found territories and their associated resources.

Should the Sakhalin's oil rich regions stave off peak oil, this should be our cue to to come up with our alternative energy plan, to include a hydrogen based economy. To say that this environmental disaster of a discovery, (and project) without some sort of an alternative energy lesson is without merit, would in fact be a sad future energy agenda.
This dicovery should hopefully help alleviate the energy crisis in the US some time in the future.